The first week after the Wimbledon tournament was rich in various mediocre competitions. Tennis players mostly fought on clay and hard surfaces, some still played on grass. Representatives of Ukraine reached one final in three tournaments in various categories, but not everyone won.

WTA 250 Budapest / Palermo

For women, clay competitions are traditionally held in Budapest and Palermo after the grass branch. With Ukrainians at this year’s competition in Hungary, the rest of the world remembers Katerina Beindl’s good performance – a major scandal in the first-round match between local tennis player Amarissa Tot and veteran Chinese Zhang Shuai. In the first set, the Chinese woman hit the line with the score 5:5 (15:15), but it didn’t count. The referee also approved the decision of this side referee. The Chinese woman called her supervisor, but she said she had no right to record the notes. The match continued, and after the next draw Hungarian came and cleared the mark from the blow, with nothing to be proven. At the same time, the stands booed Shuai, who was trying to protest. After discussing the matter with the authorities and calling the physic due to breathing problems, Shuai burst into tears and withdrew from the match. He found the strength to approach the judge and the opponent to shake hands. After that, Amarissa raised her hands in victory. This despicable act seriously alarmed the tennis community, and it did not shy away from many players and fans. Amarissa Toth tried to apologize, but no one saw sincerity in her words as well as understanding. Not the best start for a young tennis player, for whom this win is a first at WTA level.

As for Bindl’s performance, the Ukrainian has missed most of the first half of the season for one year in a row due to injuries and is only starting to catch up in the summer. This season was no exception, Katerina only started playing fully at the end of May. At the tournament in Budapest, Katya finally began to show good tennis before the final, without losing a single set. He punished Amarissa Toth in the second round, they even joked on social networks that this was the most anticipated match after the Wimbledon final. Everyone wanted to see how the vile Hungarian messed up in court. Well, Katerina did not disappoint the tennis community (6:3, 6:1). In addition to Toth, two more Hungarian tennis players, Natalia Sabanin and Fanny Stollar, suffered from the Beindl racket, only in the semifinals Katya faced a good opponent – American Claire Liu. Bindl seemed to be the favorite in the final against the little-known 19-year-old Maria Timofeeva, but the tennis player without the flag managed to win the WTA tournament in lucky loser status. Moreover, for Timofeeva it was the first participation in the main draw. Shame on Katerina, unlikely to get such a nice draw, Bindl hasn’t won titles at this level yet, the second final was lost. On the positive side, it’s worth noting that this year five Ukrainians have played in WTA finals like never before.

WTA. Katerina Beindl

Also at the center of the competition in Budapest was Katerina Volodko at this level for the first time in 2 years. Two good wins were made in the qualifiers, but they could not beat Yulia Putintseva in the first round of the basics, it was enough just to win the first set. Katarina Zawatskaya lost in the first round.

Dayana Yastremska represented Ukraine in Sicily. In the first round, she confidently tackled 17-year-old Serbian Mia Ristic and then had to play Dayana’s nightmare Italian Jasmine Paolini. It is hardly worth remembering the consequences of the rich history of conflicts between these tennis players, but for the Ukrainians it was deplorable. In the seventh game, Dayana won 9 of the first 11 games and then everything turned upside down. Paolini defeated the Ukrainian for the fourth time in a row and finally reached the final. Failed to win in a fight against Italian Zheng Qinwen, one of the best tennis players under 21, the Chinese won their first WTA title.

By the way, at the tournament in Palermo, such a “neutral” tennis player Tatyana Prozorova performed, who likes to like videos that glorify the military and political power of the Russian Federation, Putin, and also mock the Ukrainian state. WTA is silent and does not respond to such actions. However, as a well-known propagandist said, there is nothing new.

ATP 250 Bostad / Gstaad / Newport

Two tournaments for men were held on soil and one on grass. In Sweden’s Båstad, two top ten tennis players faced off for the championship. After losing the tie-break in the opening match, Kasper Ruud did not get another match from Andrey Rublev.

The final in Gstaad, Switzerland, was not so bright. In the championship match, Argentina’s Pedro Cachin defeated Spain’s Albert Ramos with a strong will in three sets. On the way to the title, Kachin lost only one set in the final and is also remembered for celebrating the victory by hugging his dog as it passed through the stands. For the 28-year-old tennis player, this was his first ATP title in his career and he will be in the top fifty starting Monday.

Healthy content 🥺@pecachin1‘s get some love ❤️#SwissOpen pic.twitter.com/BuySfgmNAl

— Tennis TV (@TennisTV) 23 July 2023

The doubles championship went to Swiss Stan Wawrinka and Dominik Stricker. They had a great celebration with the artillery.

Stan Wawrinka celebrated his doubles title by spraying champagne at the ball boys at his home in Switzerland 🍾

Moments like this are part of what makes Stan such a legend. ❤️

pic.twitter.com/TEtXQNFq8M

– Tennis Letter (@TheTennisLetter) 23 July 2023

Adrian Mannarino won the turf tournament in Newport. The 35-year-old Frenchman had a great season on the turf (12-4) and will be back in the top 30 starting Monday. In the finals in Newport, Mannarino defeated Alex Michelsen, an aspiring 18-year-old American who had previously also won the Challenger in Chicago. Ukrainian Ilya Marchenko played in the qualifiers of the tournament in Newport, stopped in the final selection round.

Hopman Cup

This tournament does not attract the attention of Ukrainian audiences, but it is important to remember this. In 2023, the competition arrived in Nice, where it will be played five years in a row. The highlight of the tournament is the participation of mixed doubles (tennis player and tennis player from the same country). Belgium (Eliza Mertens and David Goffin), Croatia (Donna Vekic and Borna Coric), Denmark (Clara Tauson and Holger Rune), Spain (Rebeca Masarova and Carlos Alcaraz), France (Alize Cornet and Richard Gasquet) and Switzerland (Céline Naef and Leandro Riedi) were represented this year.

The groups consisted of three teams, the winners advanced to the finals. In group one, Switzerland beat Denmark and France, while Riedi beat Rune and Gasquet. In the second group, Croatia proved stronger than both Belgium and Spain. Alcaraz won in both singles, but the Spaniards lost in the decisive mixed doubles against the Croats.

In the final, Vekic and Coric easily coped with Naef and Riedi, the trophy went to Croatia. For this country’s team, this is the second title won by Iva Majoli and Goran Ivanisevic in 1996. Only five countries have more titles: the Czech Republic and Slovakia have 3 wins each, Spain and Switzerland have 4, the USA has six. Recall that in 2016, Alexander Dolgopolov and Elina Svitolina reached the final of the Hopman Cup, held in Perth, where they lost to the Australians.

Hopman Cup. Donna Vekic and Borna Coric

Ukrainians at ITF and ATP Challenger Tour tournaments

We had two finals this week. Daria Snigur and Yulia Starodubtseva performed well at competitions in Spain and the USA, respectively, but Yulia was a little behind in winning the championship.

In the tough 100,000 in Vitoria, Snigur put on a high level game, beating three seeded tennis players. Before the final, there were few complaints about the Ukrainian player’s play, but the match against Jessica Ponche did not start well. The Ukrainian lost the first set and burned the second set 0-4, and then a miracle happened. Either Snigur shot a little or the initial excitement wore off, but the Ukrainian started hitting the pitch better and won 12 of 13 games, 11 of which were in a row, before the meeting was over. This is a huge victory for Dasha, having previously played two finals at this level in 2021 with the title in Dubai. It seems that competitions in the UAE were more an exception to the rule, but Snigur proved that this was not the case. The victories in the 100 thousandths are a solid aid to the long-awaited first-hundred entry. Currently, Dasha will not be able to do this yet, but keep in mind that these points will be in Ukraine’s presence for a year. Meanwhile, Snigur will play in the main draw of the WTA 250 challenge tournament in Warsaw next week, we wish him good luck.

Quickly climbing the rankings, Starodubtseva played great in Evansville in the 60,000th, but was one step behind the title in both categories. Yulia hung five “wheels” on her rivals, two of which were Whitney Ocigwe and one of Madison Brengle, on her way to the singles final. The Ukrainian faced Karman Kaur Thandi from India for the second time in the championship game. And if in June the Ukrainian managed to beat this tennis player in a tournament of a similar category in Sumter, then this time Thandi took revenge. However, Starodubtseva achieved a new personal record in the world ranking. Its further progress is beyond doubt.

The leader of Ukrainian men’s tennis, Vitaliy Sachko, managed to win a match at the Challenger held in Trieste (Italy), losing to Kyrian Jacquet of France in the second round. Another Ukrainian, Alexander Brainin, reached the final in the Challenger qualifiers held in Amersfoort (Netherlands).

Also this week, Vladislav Orlov reached the Challenger doubles final for the first time in his career. In Tampere, Orlov duetted with Adam Taylor and lost in the championship match to Polish tandem Szymon Kelan / Piotr Matuszewski.

Together with Yakub Nitsodo, Ilya Beloborodko became the doubles champion of the ITF M15 tournament in Uslar. It was the fourth doubles title for the Ukrainian.

out of court

The main event was the wedding of two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitova. She announced her engagement to her coach Jiri Vanek in London last year, and the official ceremony took place this year. Note that Vanek divorced his wife in 2020 and started living with Petra.

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Broadcast from Petra Kvitova (@petra.kvitova)

The former first racket of the world, Garbine Muguruza, posted on social networks a video with a general training session with Elina Svitolina. Presumably the Spaniard plans to return to court soon. She hasn’t played since February after deciding to take a hiatus due to a series of bad results.

Among the political issues, it can be noted that Russian Vera Zvonareva, who gave great support to Putin on the “annexation of Crimea” in 2014, was not allowed to participate in the tournament to be held in Warsaw. Polish Sports and Tourism Minister Kamil Bortnichuk even announced that he boycotted matches involving tennis players from the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. Bortnichuk said that if a representative of the attacking country plays against the world’s first racket, he will miss even the final with Iga Sviontek. By the way, the Germans did not give Anastasia Potapova a visa for the competitions in Hamburg, but the rest of the Russians did not seem to have any problems with this.

If we start talking about the Germans, then one cannot help but remember that the next problems in his personal life were to catch Alexander Zverev. Another ex-girlfriend accused the tennis player of domestic violence. The amount of compensation requested is just under half a million euros. In 2020, Zverev managed to resolve a similar case without the intervention of law enforcement agencies.

I want to end with the fact that on July 20 the Kichenok brothers celebrate their birthday. Earlier at Wimbledon, Lyudmila made a great gift for herself by winning the mixed doubles competition.